The Agent of Necropolis
by Kevin3
Summary: A rare adventure fic in a post-book-7 world. An illusive figure has emerged in the wizarding underworld and Harry and Ron aren't the only ones looking in to it. Between their nosy kids and Draco's vested interest, the two aurors have their hands full.
1. Prologue

**The Agent of Necropolis**

_by Kevin Weber_

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Author's Note: Just a few quick things before getting to the story. First off, this is my attempt to bring some excitement and action to a dull post-book-7 fanfiction. Everything these days seems like a fluff fic between Harry and Ginny, or a light and generally plot-less story involving their kids. Well, if you're looking for a return to driving story-telling, this one's for you. Strap in and enjoy the ride.

Also, just heading one small thing off at the pass. This story involves an original female character of some importance. I know fanfics have a bad history with this sort of thing, but you have my assurances that it will not be any sort of Sue. Have faith.

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**Chapter 1 - Prologue**

Samir, seeming to ignore the confused and slightly panicked look of his companion, strode through the bloodred marble halls. He could understand Asis' fear - every step they took seemed to bring them face to face with an increasingly chaotic and rule-breaking universe - sound, light, even gravity didn't seem to be their ordinary selves.

"The fog's not helping any," Asis muttered, squinting to see through a red mist that seemed to glow with a diffuse light.

"It's not fog," Samir replied back automatically. "It's writing."

"Writing?"

Asis stopped walking, falling behind, as he scooped some of the 'fog' into his hand. Crimson strands with the same consistency of angel hair pasta lazily floated in his palms. Sure enough, up close, he could discern words. "Aklathik Memntaka?" he said questioningly, reading a strand.

"NO!" Samir shouted, as the floor began to rumble, dust falling from the ceiling to further obscure their sight. "Hurry!" Samir grabbed Asis' robes and pulled him quick as the room began to collapse.

"Booby trap?" Asis asked sheepishly.

"Spell," Samir said firmly.

"Spell? You mean..."

"Yes. Now, don't say anything and stick behind me."

The pair quickly made their way through the labyrinth of hallways, the only sign of progress being a steadily thicker fog and the occasional pinprick of anxiety. Samir suddenly stopped, causing Asis to jostle into him. "Asis," Samir said softly. "Up these stairs and through the door is Ankh's sanctum. I will need you to go in and distract him."

"What will you be doing?" Asis asked, a tinge of fear in his voice.

"Sealing this place up from the inside."

"Sealing? Why not destroy it?"

Samir sighed. "Some evils are so great that nothing can completely destroy them. No power on this earth could completely expunge the nightmare that is Ankh's Domain. Since we cannot erase it, our best path is to diminish it and hide it away."

"But..."

"No. There is no time. Go and confront Ankh, while I do what I can here."

Asis swallowed, but nodded his head, wielding his wand while carefully climbing the small set of stairs. He could barely see anymore, the thick red fog obscuring even his own feet. His feet guided him by touch while his unused hand feeling around for the door Samir mentioned. He blindly grasped the handle and turned, wincing as it let out a very loud squeak.

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	2. Whisperings

**Chapter 2 - Whisperings**

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"Ow! Hey, who elbowed me!"

"Scrunch over, I need to sit."

"Oy!" James yelled. "We're not going to all fit in here." He pointed to the door and bellowed, "First years, get out of here."

"Hey," Molly said grumpily. "I was here third after Rose and Hugo!"

"Yeah, why do we have to get out?" Fred complained.

"Because we're older," James said, and for effect, brandished his wand. Everyone there knew that nobody was technically allowed to perform magic on the train - but everyone there also knew that James certainly wasn't going to let a little rule like that stop him.

"You're a git," Fred shouted back, but grabbed his trunk and left the train compartment. Molly looked for a minute like she was going to refuse, but in the end, she let out a very indignant huff and followed her cousin.

"You are a bit of a git," Albus said lightly, kicking back.

"Oh, come on," James shot back. "You know that all seven of us can't fit in here. Heck, it's crowded enough with Hugo and Lily."

"What are you reading?" Lily asked Rose, who had been ignoring everyone so far.

"New Charms book."

"Pft," came James' sound of disgust. "Studying already?"

"Not really," Rose said imperiously. "Most of this is boring - the first few months of class are probably going to be a pain. But they've got some really good spells in chapter 14."

"Such as...?"

Rose narrowed her eyes. "Why don't you try reading a bit yourself?"

James grinned and leaned back. "It's a trick!"

Rose rolled her eyes and went back to reading.

A half hour later, Albus was engrossed in a game of Exploding Snap with Lily, while Hugo and James ribbed the pair whenever a card exploded in front of their faces. Rose looked up with a grin whenever either of the two said anything memorable or witty, but for the most part, was engrossed in looking up Charms.

"It certainly looks like you five are enjoying yourself - especially you, Rose."

"What are you doing here," James said in a low voice, looking at the fourth year boy poking his head into their compartment. As soon as Albus saw who the newcomer was, he understood the undertone in his elder brother's voice. James didn't exactly get along best with his Slytherin rival, Scorpius.

"Now, now," Scorpius said, a faint ghost of a smile on his face. "I won't intrude on your game - or your reading - for long. I was wondering if I could speak with Albus."

Everyone turned to look at Albus. Rose had a curious look on her face, probably wondering why Scorpius wasn't including her in the talk; the two younger students were obviously trying to figure out what was going on at all; James, however, had an almost accusational stare at his younger sibling.

"Er, sure," Albus said.

A few seconds went by awkwardly before Scorpius smiled. "Not here - somewhere private."

Both James and Rose let out indignant noises but Albus shrugged, rising to his feet. He silently followed the Slytherin along the train until they came to one of the end compartments. Three sixth years were inside, but when Scorpius rapped on the door, all three got up and left. Even more surprisingly, the trio didn't leave to find another compartment, but guarded the door, making sure the pair wouldn't be interrupted or snooped upon.

"Your brother is quite... abrasive," Scorpius said, sitting down.

"Scorpius," Albus said, taking a seat as well, "whatever it is you want to talk about, bad-mouthing my brother isn't a good way to start."

"I understand," Scorpius said, smiling. "Albus, I want your help with something."

This wasn't unusual, as odd as it sounded. Albus and Scorpius had a history of quid-pro-quo arrangements, and while Albus had the uncomfortable feeling that Scorpius viewed him (and for that matter, everyone else) as pawns to achieve his ends, everything always seemed to work out for the better for both of them. Whether it was a streak of decency in the Slytherin or the simple understanding that you could sheer a sheep many times but only slaughter it once, Albus didn't know.

"Help with what?"

Scorpius sighed. "I'll be up front. Both of us know that the Malfoy family has a tendency to... skirt by troublesome issues of Wizarding Law."

Albus grinned. "That's one way of phrasing it."

"And, better or worse, that's how we maintain our living. However, something has come up that might eventually put a pinch on that living. A dark... something."

"Something?"

"I don't know how to describe it," Scorpius admitted. "Have you heard anything recently about 'The Siren'? Such as from your dad?"

"No."

"I'm not surprised. All there have been so far have been some vague whispers, not even enough to solidly piece together what's going on. From what I've put together, there's a new dark character or dark artifact called 'The Siren' that's emerged in the southern part of England."

"A... a new dark lord?" Albus asked, growing a bit alarmed; he remembered well the stories he'd heard about the last time a Dark Lord was present in the area.

"No, at least I'm pretty sure not," Scorpius said, frowning. "I haven't heard much, but the Siren, whatever or whoever it is, doesn't seem focused on raw power or conquering things. It's almost... fickle."

"Fickle," Albus echoed, bemused - and beginning to wonder if Scorpius was pulling one over him.

Scorpius sighed. "Like I said, I don't know much. But I think you should mention all of this to your father, and hopefully increase the ministry's auror presence in the area."

"Just my father?" Albus asked.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "If you find it absolutely necessary, you can get some other members of your family involved, even if they are a bit less... refined."

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	3. Sorting

**Chapter 3 - Sorting**

"A siren," Rose said, frowning

"_The _Siren."

"I wonder," Rose thought out loud, "if it has anything to do with Sirens - you know, the muggle mythology? They'd lure sailors to crash their ships with their songs."

"I don't think so," Albus said.

"Well, I think it means the wizard is a female," Rose said stubbornly.

"That would explain the fickle bit," James said, finally joining in. Ignoring Rose's look of contempt, he shot out, "Come on, this is _Malfoy_. He's probably having a good laugh about the whole thing. Draco's probably doing something illegal in the _northern _half of the country and wants his son to help distract the ministry from finding out."

"But I don't th..."

The group was interrupted by Headmistress Bariste clearing her throat from the staff table - an action which somehow always seemed to quiet the place down faster than any teacher yelling. "Welcome, students, to another year at Hogwarts. Professor Ouphe, please bring in the first years."

Everyone watched as the deputy headmaster brought in a gaggle of young students, two of which had the trademark Weasley red hair. As Professor Ouphe herded his charges into a group in front of the hall, the headmistress pulled from her robes a ragged looking bit of cloth which with everyone was quite familiar. The Sorting Hat sat up a bit and began its song.

_"Why you ask, is this raggedy cap,  
singing this spritely tune?  
Listen up, pay attention,  
and you'll find out quite soon."_

_"Hogwarts has houses taken after  
the founders - the legendary four!  
But they knew that they wouldn't  
be around to sort forevermore."_

_"They gave me their knowledge, their tastes,  
and a mouth to sing this song  
I tell each where they will fit  
and I've never yet been wrong."_

_"Are you the loyal sort of friend  
that would never turn your back?  
You'll soon find yourself draped  
in Helga's Yellow and Black."_

_"Perhaps with a mind quite adept  
to mull things fully through?  
Instead you'll come to wear  
Rowena's Bronze and Blue."_

_"Possibly a courageous soul,  
dashing, daring, and bold?  
You could find yourself adorned  
in Godric's Scarlet and Gold."_

_"Or perchance your quest for power  
and guile really is quite keen  
It may be your fate to be clad  
in Salazar's Silver and Green."_

_"Come up here, throw me on  
and I'll be happy to do my part  
Without further singing on my end  
let the sorting ceremony start."  
_

The sorting ceremony afterwards held no surprises. Besides Molly and Fred, which were quickly shuffled into Gryffindor, none of the other first years were familiar to Rose, Albus, or James. James, in particular, didn't pay much attention to the proceedings, instead fiddling with a bit of spellotape stuck to the insides of his robe's left pocket. Albus noticed, though, that Molly and Fred both seemed to have made a few friends on the train ride - a group of five of them hung together through most of the ceremony.

"First years," the headmistress called out, "if you'll follow the prefects, they'll lead you on a brief tour of the castle and show you to your rooms. Everyone else, you're free to go - remember that Quiet Hours begin at 8:00."

"Quiet Hours," James scoffed as the Gryffindors got up to leave. "Dumbest thing I've ever seen."

"Could be worse," Rose interjected, climbing stairs towards the Gryffindor common entrance. "Dad says that they had a strict curfew when he was here. At least they let us move around the castle in the evenings."

"Still, Eight? Who goes to bed at eight?!"

"You're just mad," Rose said teasingly, "because you've gotten detentions for being too loud... how many times? Seven? Eight? _Principalis Requiem_."

At the password, the portrait opened up.

"Albus, you coming in?" James asked.

Albus hesitated. "No, I need to make a fire call."

"You can't do it from the commons?"

"Ah..." Rose said, figuring it out. "You want to talk to your dad about that Siren business."

"I'm telling you," James added, "Scorpius' just putting you on."

Albus shrugged. "I'll be back in a bit." He nodded his goodbye, and walked back through the staircases towards the Astronomy Tower. There was a common fireplace up there, which hopefully wouldn't be in use - it was rather out of the way, after all.

Trudging up the steps, he opened the door to the sound of murmuring and kisses. Blushing, he couldn't duck back out of the room before catching sight of who it was, even with the face turned from him. The long blond hair, muscular body, and obvious rapport with women, it could be no other than his cousin Louis. His elegance wasn't unmatched, though; Albus personally thought the brown-haired seventh year girl looked stunning; Between her beauty and the shock of the situation, Albus froze up.

"Merlin, Albus, what on earth are you doing up here?" The question was a bit pointed - obviously his relative (and his female companion) wanted their privacy back.

"S-sorry," Albus stammered. "Was... firecall."

"Ah," Louis said. He turned back to the brown-haired girl, gave her a tender kiss and said, "Guess we'll have to do this another time then, eh Vi?" With a flirting grin, he got up and left the room. His partner, however, looked far less pleased, and grabbed her school robes off the stone floor as she left with a very nasty glare. Albus shook his head, bemused at the situation and depressed at his hopelessness around women.

"Harry Potter, London," Albus said, throwing a bit of powder into the fireplace.

A few seconds later, his father's worried face came into the flames. "Albus! Is everything all right?"

"Yes," he said, sitting down on the stone floor. "Nothing's wrong, but I need to talk to you about something..."


	4. An Interrogation

**Chapter 4 - An Interrogation**

"Was everything all right?"

Harry looked over at his wife, hearing the same worried tone in her voice that he'd had first answering his son's call. "Everything's fine. Albus got a message from Scorpius about something the ministry should look into."

"Scorpius - The Malfoy boy? ... Why?"

"My guess? Draco has something he really would like the ministry to look into, and his son is just playing messenger."

"But... why not just call you up directly?"

"No idea."

"Well, so what was the message?"

"That's the thing, I'm not really sure. Apparently there's some sort of stirring in the darker parts of the wizarding world. Not anything like Voldemort, but enough that Draco is worried about someone edging into his... sphere in life."

"Well, good," Ginny said, crossing her arms. "Does he expect us to feel sorry that he can't make a living through dark magic? You _know _he's not some upstanding citizen, regardless of what the Daily Prophet would make him out to be."

Harry laughed. "Trust me, I'd love to catch him doing something overt and against the law. But that doesn't mean I can ignore this sort of thing just because it happens to help Draco out."

"He's using you."

"Yes, I know that. Still, it's my job to lock dark wizards up, and if Draco wants to be the one to deliver 'em up, then I'll be more than happy to open the cell door."

Ginny frowned, but didn't press the point.

"Anyway," Harry said, "I'm going to head out, poke around a bit, with the cloak for good measure."

After grabbing the cloak (and kissing his wife goodbye,) he apparated to one of the small wizarding villages that clung to the outskirts of the London metropolis. With an almost instinctive sense developed as an auror, his feet had soon carried him into a rundown and shady looking district - a shambled and poor version of London's Knockturn Alley.

Honestly, this was what he was best at in his job. His invisibility cloak, combined with a prodigious skill at legilimens, was an immensely useful weapon. It was next to impossible to avoid any sort of eye contact with an invisible person - you wouldn't know where _not _to look - and each time Harry met someone's fleeting glance, he subtly dipped into the person's mind. It was a skill he'd slowly perfected - if you didn't delve in deep enough you wouldn't get any information, but if you went too far, the dark wizard would realize what was going on. Artfully, he skirted between the two, getting snippets of information while merely giving the dark wizard the sensation of subconscious daydreaming.

After a few hours, he'd found a few people that had heard of The Siren, but didn't have any more substantial information than what his son had given him - just vague whisperings. He was about to move on to another wizarding village when he attempted to delve into another's mind and hit a solid wall.

'_Bingo_,' Harry thought triumphantly. Occlumency was difficult enough (and he'd know that better than anyone!) and to employ it constantly as a sort of shield? It was a pretty good indication that the wizard in front of him didn't merely dabble in the dark arts.

Harry stood perfectly still as the wizard walked toward him, invisibly blocking the man's path. Just as Harry was going to get bumped into, he wordlessly stunned the man. Acting quickly, before anyone in the street could react, Harry caught the man in his arms and silently apparated them both back to the Potter residence.

"Whoa, Harry, who do you have there?" The voice, however familiar, definitely was not his wife's.

"Ron! When did you get here?"

"Harry," Ginny chided, "I told you he was coming over for supper tonight."

Harry mentally shrugged. "Actually, I'm glad you're here. Mind helping me with an interrogation?"

Ron laughed. "Absolutely. But let's make it quick..." And to illustrate why Ron was in such a hurry, his stomach audibly growled.

Harry and Ron dragged the man over to the living room and sat him upright on the couch. Ron magically bound the wizard's body, rendering him completely immobile, while Harry brought him back to conscious.

"Hello there," Harry said, smiling as he met the man's eyes. "My name is Harry Potter, and this is my good friend Ron Weasley. We're briefly detaining you for questioning under the Auror's Authority Decree - just try to relax, and we'll let you get back to your shopping."

Harry tried once again to peer into the man's thoughts, but was immediately rebuffed. Harry smiled, feeling the blazing intensity of the man's focus into occlumency. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way. Ron?"

Someone unaccustomed to Harry and Ron's routine might have worried about those words. He knew the first time Ginny saw them doing this, she half panicked. After all, it was a reasonable assumption that Ron and Harry were about to get a bit dark themselves in their quest for information. Such fears were alleviated when the incantation came out of Ron's mouth:

"_Titilare!_"

"That's right," Harry said, smiling at the poor dark wizard. "Tickling charm." Harry and Ron had found that absolutely nothing was better at distracting a wizard's concentration away from occlumency than tickling them - made all the more potent by the fact that they couldn't move a muscle. "There we go..." Harry murmured, feeling the man's mental walls crumbling.

Harry didn't merely dip. He fully dived in, gathering every bit of the man's history, and even his thoughts and feelings. Nearly ten minutes later, Harry finally felt he'd found everything of use. It was time for the second half: manipulating their captive.

"Well, well," Harry said, grinning. "Ron, do you know who we have here? This man before us is Geckavin Giovani - and commonly goes by the nickname 'The Gecko.'"

"The Gecko? You're kidding! He was the one that put an auror in Mungo's for a few days back in August."

"Turns out," Harry added, "that he makes a living inventing, manufacturing, and selling objects to make our jobs harder. You know those auror-centric Foe-Glasses we've seen popping up?"

"You mean the ones that show when the Ministry is getting close to catching you?"

"This wonderful person is the one that made them!" Harry said happily. "I'm sure the ministry would love to reward him for it - what do you think? Lock-up?"

"Lockup?" Ron snorted. "Oh, no, he's looking at _Azkaban _- at least 20 years for assaulting an Auror. Then add in the at least two dozen violations regarding the manufacture and transport of dark objects, I'd be surprised if we ever have to worry about him again."

"Now, I want you to listen, Geckavin," Harry said, his voice getting hard. "We're going to give you a choice. The first option is, you go to Azkaban, and you go there for a long, long time." He leaned forward, towering over the man as his voice hardened further. "And make no mistake, if you don't cooperate, we've got you nailed so hard I wouldn't be surprised if the Wizengamot didn't just throw away the key. Now, your second choice. You help us apprehend ..."

"Dinner's ready!" Ginny's voice called out.

Harry groaned, and Ron sniggered a bit.

"... you help us apprehend the Clemsons," Harry continued, trying to recreate the intense atmosphere as before, "and we get you a 10 year term in Ministry Lock-Up. No Azkaban." Ron undid a portion of the magical binding so the captive could talk.

"Just... just the Clemsons? Joeseph and Marietta Clemson?" the wizard said. Harry smiled, seeing the wheels turn in the man's head. If he'd been asked to deliver a large number of dark wizards to the ministry, he'd never live - being branded as a snitch pretty much carried a death sentence in the darker segments of wizarding society. However, handing over a mere pair of wizards could be explained away - backstabing, or even revenge.

"Just the two," Harry confirmed.

"I'll... I'll do it."

--

Particular thanks to SierraPotter, who let me know there was a small problem with how I was writing Draco's son...


	5. An Attack

**Chapter 5 - An Attack**

Rose looked up at her two cousins, watching as they warmed up for Quidditch practice by doing lazy circles around the pitch in formation behind their captain. She shook her head as she returned to her reading - she never understood why Quidditch was so popular. A coach released a ball, and someone eventually brought it back. And the rest of the team worried about throwing and catching a bigger ball called the quiffle or something. But the way to hear James go on about it, you'd think it was an art form. Personally, she'd just as soon read up on some spells - which is why she always brought along a book when they dragged her to practices.

"Excuse me."

Rose looked back up from her book, this time to see a rather unfriendly - and rather intimidating - Slytherin seventh year girl looking back at her. "Yes?" Rose asked.

"Are you Rose Weasley?"

Rose opened her mouth to answer the affirmative, but something didn't feel right. For some reason, Rose felt a palpable shiver run down her spine and she found herself saying, "No."

"You're not?"

"No - why do you want to see her?"

"I need to give her something."

For some reason, this made Rose feel all the more worried, though she couldn't put her finger on it. She tried to think up something to say, but before anything came, she heard James' voice call from above, "Hey, Rose, you doing okay?"

Immediately, the Slytherin's eyes flashed in fury. In a blindingly fast movement, the older girl drew her wand and started hexing her.

"...Rose..."

Why were her eyes shut? Rose opened them tentatively, and more questions came to her. Why was she laying down? Why was she in the hospital? And why couldn't she feel anything? The memories of the pitch slowly came back to her, causing her to close her eyes again. What on earth had she done to that 7th year to earn _this_?

"... Rose?"

Rose once again opened her eyes and looked over towards her older cousin's voice. Both James and Albus were in the hospital with her - in beds of their own. James didn't look too worse for wear - he had bandages in a few places and his left hand was apparently being regrown. But Albus had wrappings all over his head, and ominously, they were colored red in several spots.

"Is... is he okay?" Rose asked, her voice growing a bit shrill, panic immediately seeping in.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down," James said, bringing up his good hand. "He's fine, we're all fine."

"What happened?!"

"The Slytherin girl hexed you - nasty stuff, but the medic's got most of it cleared up - and she screamed something about 'For her parents!' I started flying down to try to help, but she turned around and starting shooting spells at me and Albus. I did my best to get down, but I had my hands full just trying to not get hit - found out it's awfully hard to duel atop a broomstick in a 15 mile an hour wind. She hit Albus, and bad. The spell seemed to just..." James shook his head as if to clear it before continuing, "... just nasty stuff, plus, he fell a ways to the ground. Nurse says he should be up for classes within a week, though."

"Did anyone else on the team get hurt?" she asked, finally exploring with her hands around her own head. It was hard to tell - her entire body felt numbed and insensate - but it seemed like her head was dressed with a few bandages as well.

"No, that's the thing. She went after you, me, and Albus. She didn't even bother with the rest of the team, not even so much as a defensive counterspell."

"So where is she?" Rose asked, beginning to feel an upwelling of outrage.

"Left," James said sorrowfully. "Almost got caged by the beaters, but she managed to skirt off. She fled the grounds, and I'm assuming she won't be back. Headmistress said she was expelled."

"What was the girl's name?"

"Don't know, but they're going to make an announcement in the Dining Hall within a few minutes. You know..." His expression suddenly turned to mischievous. "...I think I'm going to go down and find out now instead of having to wait."

"Are you _allowed _to leave yet?" Rose asked, eying her cousin's bandages.

James grinned for an answer and got out of bed.


	6. Song of the Siren

**Chapter 6 - Song of the Siren**

Harry sighed, nursing a headache. Harry and Ron caught the Clemsons, but unfortunately not completely by surprise, which allowed the pair to perform a complicated - and very annoying - memory charm on themselves: The Hashish charm.

The Hashish Charm took a bunch of memories and turned them into a scrambled and nigh unrecognizable jumble - which would only sort themselves out when someone said a certain code word. Most dark wizards didn't bother with it - not because it was ineffective (actually, it was one of the best ways of hiding memories from aurors) but because of the risk of permanent memory loss. After all, it relied on a cohort coming up afterwards and saying a code word to unscramble everything, which was an uncertain proposition for many different reasons.

Then, on top of that, the couple had overlaid another set of memories over the scrambled bit - a little annoying brat singing the song "Dinky Dinky Dragonscales" over and over and over again.

Which was why Harry was nursing the headache. He'd heard that song blaring through his brain for so long (and at the most perfectly irritatingly high pitched kiddie whine) that he doubted he'd be able to get it out of his head for at least three weeks; every now and again, he caught his mouth moving along with the words echoing through his head.

Sighing, he delved back into Joseph Clemson's mind one last time, trying to get little snippets from the blended information - but to no avail. After seven hours, all he had were vague and tentative intuitions - namely, that the pair knew The Siren, and knew her well.

"Think The Siren has the code phrase?" Ron asked, a macabre grimace on his face. After all, the main reason they wanted to see the Clemson's memories was to find The Siren, meaning that if the woman had the code-phrase, the Clemsons were completely useless.

Harry grunted. "You want to have another go at Marietta?"

"No, I've had enough. I'll take them both back to their cells. You heading home?"

"I should," Harry answered. "But I'm going to snoop around the Clemson house for a bit."

Ron nodded his goodbye and then escorted the bound couple through the Ministry hallways. Harry shook his head, trying to clear it enough of that stupid blasted song so that he could manage to apparate.

He reopened his eyes, seeing a rather unassuming house in front of him, looking the part of any number of plain muggle homes. However, when he pushed open the door and stepped through the threshold, a trained eye could see that it was a wizarding home: the portraits tried their best to stay perfectly still, but every once in awhile Harry caught them breathing.

He was midway to the kitchen when he heard the front door opening again. Whirling around, his hand hovering over his wand, Harry prepared himself for the worst: a possible encounter with one or more dark wizards in an unfamiliar environment. Instead, he was a bit surprised by what he saw.

An extremely attractive woman stood in the entryway, looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. She wasn't wearing robes but a muggle shirt and jean shorts - and as an additional oddity, a bent and folded palm frond adorned her head like a circlet.

"Who are you?" the woman asked, taking a few tentative steps towards him. "Why are you in my neighbor's house?"

It took Harry a half second too long to answer, jarred as he was by her appearance. "I'm Harry Potter. I'm investigating their disappearance."

A flicker of an odd emotion seemed to ghost over the woman's eyes, but vanished quickly. "They're _missing?_" she asked casually. "That's odd - they told me they were heading over to Portugal for a vacation for the next two weeks." She pulled her shirt up over her head, revealing a black tank top beneath it. "Did you check with the Portuguese Ministry?"

"No, I didn't," Harry answered. He opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes caught the girl's and suddenly his mind blanked. "I... I'm sorry, I forgot what I was going to say." Harry watched, mesmerized, as the woman slowly sauntered over to him, her hair jostling with each footstep while her hand absently traced down along the tank-top's generous neck line, drawing his eyes to far from innocent places.

Why was swallowing so hard? It took far more effort than normal to do so, with his brain struggling to fight whatever was going on - made far more difficult due to the refrain of "Dinky Dinky Dragonscales" blaring through his skull. It wasn't quite like a Veela's charm - this was far more potent, and unmistakably insidious. Dark lusty thoughts battled in his subconscious while he tried to hang on to his self-control.

"I don't suppose," she whispered in a low voice, a smirk beginning to grace her face, "that you'd help me out with something else while you're looking for my parents?" She teasingly drew a finger along his forearm, with only a few inches now separating them.

Harry slowly began to win the battle raging in his head, his eyes forcing themselves into staring down hers instead of looking at much more appealing sights. Finally, his fingers curled around his wand and brought it up between them.

"Oh," the girl said in a voice that was both amused and disappointed. "I suppose I should've expected as much. An awful lot of willpower you've got - something that I really admire. Which makes it all the more lamentable, I suppose, that you didn't give in. Now, if you don't mind, I should be going. Lock the door when you're done snooping, my love."

"Stop," Harry managed weakly. "I'm detaining you under the Auror's Authority Decree..."

"Oh, please," the woman said with a gently bubbling laugh. "You're not going to stun me." For emphasis, she stepped an inch closer, her finger trailing from his arm to his chest, etching lazy circles along his robes - yet Harry still could not summon the words to incapacitate her. "Next time we meet, Mr. Potter," she whispered, "try not to be such a predictable bore."

Before Harry could do anything, the girl had stepped away and lazily strolled out the way she had came. His body half collapsed in shivers, trembling from the mental and emotion strain he'd gone through. It took him nearly a minute to clear his mind well enough to apparate back to his house.

--


	7. James' Horror Stories

**Chapter 7 - James' Horror Stories**

"Albus!" Rose said, rushing up to walk beside her cousin. "We just heard the hospital released you! We've got so much to tell you," Rose gushed. "First, they said who that girl was that attacked us."

"Viola," Albus replied automatically.

"Wait... what? You _knew _her?" Rose asked, shocked.

"Well, no, not really," Albus admitted.

"Then how did you know it was her?"

Albus thought for a minute, and then shook his head side to side.

"Hey, wait just a minute!" Rose said - a bit too loudly, attracting the glances of a number of passerbys. "You know something, and you're holding it back!"

"It's personal," Albus said. He could see this didn't mollify his cousin in the slightest. "Listen," he said, putting up a hand in a calming motion, "I think I'll be able to tell you about it later, but right now, it's kinda confidential."

Rose's expression soured further. "Git," she sniped. "Anyway, I have to get to Charms class. You coming?"

"No," Albus said. "I have to se... see a friend. I don't have to be back at classes until Monday - nurses' orders."

Rose's face scowled even more, but she didn't have time to try to work over her cousin for details. She harrumphed and took off down the corridor for class. Albus shook his head and continued on his walk, searching for one person in particular.

"Albus! This is just your year for sneaking up on me."

Albus shrugged, sitting down next to his cousin Louis - who looked quite unlike himself: tentative, and almost a bit guilty. "At least you're not with a girl this time around," Albus said.

Louis did a double take. "Yeah," he said warily, "I suppose there's that."

"I wanted to ask you about Viola."

Louis inhaled sharply. "I knew it was too much to hope for. There was no way you were going to forget seeing the two of us together."

Albus nodded. "Listen..."

"I didn't know," Louis burst out. "I didn't know! She was a nice girl! She isn't this monster, or at least she wasn't. I never would have imagined she could do anything like that!"

Albus could see how much his cousin was bothered by what happened - and could understand why. Who would've expected that you would walk in on someone snogging your cousin, and then later be savagely attacked by them a few months down the road?

"It's okay," he said in the most reassuring voice he could summon. "I wanted to know whatever I could about her, to try to figure out what happened."

"I knew here pretty well, well... I guess I thought I did," Louis answered. "But... why does it matter? The way she attacked you... she's gone bad, and she's no longer even at the school."

"Humor me."

Louis sighed. "You know that she's Slytherin, but we managed to look past that. Funny thing is, I think it was harder for her to get past that I was from the hated halls of Gryffindor. She seemed kind of lonely - I don't know what the deal was with her parents, but she made it seem like they were awfully distant, especially her fathher. She had a few friends, but none of them were particularly close, and I was about the only person she trusted herself to confide in. And, this is going to sound bad, but she was a bit... clingy."

Albus took this all in, which wasn't that easy with his very limited experience in these matters. An older and wiser person might have seen the motivations behind a young woman's attachment with Louis, but Albus didn't quite manage.

"Louis," Albus said, "there's a reason why I'm asking..."

He handed a clipping to his cousin - not from the Daily Prophet, but from the MoM Auror Beat Report - a publication that very few people received simply because they could care less (Albus subscribed simply so he could read about stuff his dad did on the job.) "Look right... here."

Louis read aloud, "Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley apprehended Joseph and Mariette Clemson, and are being accused of violations of the decree against dark artifacts. They are currently being held for indefinite questioning."

Louis' eyes widened. "Joseph and Mariette Clemson! Joe and Marie are her parents!"

Albus nodded. "And someone told me that she screamed, 'This is for my parents' when she attacked the three of us - the three of us whose parents locked up her parents."

"So what are you saying?"

"I don't know. But I don't think it's just that she's dark. It seems like she's... unbalanced. Which is good, I suppose, but... well..."

"Well what?"

"Well, a young dark wizard wouldn't bother coming back to Howarts - it's just silly. The professors would probably apprehend them before they could do anything. But someone off tilt...?"

Louis raised an eyebrow. "You've been listening to too many horror stories from your older brother."

--


	8. Ulysses Unlimited

**Chapter 8 - Ulysses Unlimited**

The running joke was that Artemis' first name and his laugh had one thing in common: no one had ever heard either of them. While Harry was sure that the head Auror - his boss - did actually have a first name, nobody he met ever knew it. And while Harry was sure that the man must've laughed at least once in his life, there seemed to be no witnesses of it, either. The man took his job very seriously, his voice always resonating with a deep authority as he handed out assignments.

Or, like now, when he briefed the department.

"I'm sure you've all read the news reports about the recent string of thefts. As of this morning, five artifact dealers, three art stores, and four crystal shops were hit. We have reason to believe these are all tied together behind a leader called 'The Siren'. Now, contrary to what the news reports say, we're pretty sure this isn't the start of some new dark lord."

Harry had to smile a little bit at the breaths of relief some of the members gave.

"The pattern this 'Siren' is taking points quite a different direction. Each time 'The Siren' burglarizes an establishment, they only take one or two items. More tellingly, it's rarely the most powerful item in the place, or even the most valuable. When Argentum's Artifacts was visited by 'The Siren', three mind stones were left in place and a relatively useless - but visually stunning - bauble was taken instead. We could guess from these behaviors, as well as the name, that The Siren is female, but fortunately we don't have to guess. One of our members has actually encountered The Siren up close. Potter, care to brief everyone?"

Harry nodded and stood up. "The Siren is a relatively young woman, around 28 or 29. Her nickname is very apt - she not only possesses an extremely attractive body, but a sort of spell I've never seen before. If I had to describe it, it'd be what would happen if you took the Veela charm, strengthened it threefold, and dipped it into a vat of evil."

At this, he saw a bunch of grins go up in some of the male aurors' faces - and knew that if Artemis wasn't present, there'd be some good natured ribbing on just how much of this Siren's call Harry got to experience.

"The encounter didn't last very long, but if I had to stress one thing, it's not to underestimate her. You'll need to be mentally vigilant." He mentally sighed and knew he should admit up to his weakness so that other members wouldn't make the same mistake he did. "I underestimated her and she easily escaped me, despite her not even having a wand out."

Artemis stood back up. "Now, the merchants are screaming bloody murder to the Ministry, which means this is now our number one priority. Potter, Weasley; you two are still leads on this, but I'm going to put Rizzio, Portailica, and Diamenthes under you. I want to hear back at least twice a week as to how things are coming. Everyone, dismiessed."

The group scattered, two witches and a wizard making their way over to Harry and Ron. "Uh, well, where to start?" Harry said to his friend, shrugging.

"Okay," Ron said, taking charge. "We don't have any solid clues to go on at the moment, so for now, we're going to try to catch them in the act. Elizabeth, I want you to take Piochet's Perfect Precious Stones. Eustace, you get The Dragon's Horde. And Priscilla, you cover Olivia's Objet D'Art. Go plainsclothe, but don't worry too much about disguises."

"Oh," Harry added, "most of the robberies were in the early evening, so for the next week or so, plan on working four 'til midnight, starting tomorrow."

This led to a bit of grumbling - which was understandable - but everyone seemed to understand the necessity.

"You three can take off now - we don't expect you to cover the places tonight."

The three aurors obligingly started going back to their desks, and Ron turned to Harry. "You heading home?"

"Nah. Ginny's going to be over at Luna's until late, so I figure I should snoop around a bit more."

Ron grinned. "So... what was it like?"

Harry groaned. "Let's just put it this way: if I ever told the full details to Ginny of what was going through my mind that minute or so, she'd flay me alive."

Ron laughed before apparating to go back to his house. Harry sighed, and apparated as well, appearing at the front of a shop on the northern edge of London.

The moment he stepped through the door to Ulysses Unlimited, he felt out of place. The venue was posh - far too elegant for someone wearing working auror robes. Grimacing, he quickly apparated back home to change into something better, before apparating right back a few minutes later. It wasn't vanity or wanting to impress people; if he was going to be inconspicuous, he needed to fit in.

Only now did he actually look at what the store was selling and felt a good deal of envy for the actual customers. The place sold wizarding art - and only the best of it. Wizarding art was a very difficult and demanding form of expression. Muggle painters had it relatively easy - they simply dabbed paint on a canvas to make it look like something. It didn't matter too much if the painter was preoccupied, focused, or had a completely clear head.

Wizarding art, however, required the painter to be in a constantly changing state of mind, reflecting the tenor of the painting as each brush stroke touched. It was both physically and emotionally demanding - most wizards and witches simply couldn't do it. And of all the people that could do it, only a very small subset could do it well.

Harry looked at a painting called 'Sunset'. At its face, it was very simple - the impressionist picture showed a sun slowly descending upon a pasture. But as the whirls of paint curled, moved, and changed pigment, emotions roiled to the forefront. At first they were unmistakably happy as the sun still held its height. Then desperation began to seep in as the sun's descent was undeniable and life struggled to get everything in while the light was there. Tendrils of despair emerged, until a sense of hopelessness engulfed the scene, the landscape turning into a dark and unsettling night.

Harry suspected that this painting would probably not even be obtainable for all the gold in his gringots vault.

He slowly moved on, appreciating each picture in turn, until he was jarred from contemplation by a loud discussion in the neighboring room of the gallery.

"Ma'am, I said you can't cross the velvet rope! Back away from the painting. Customer's can't touch anything until they purchase."

He wasn't the only one that noticed the disturbance. Two wizards and a witch strode urgently past him, and Harry recognized one of them: Belmont Beaufield, a freelance security auror. Harry wasn't too surprised; he knew that a lot of businesses were quickly hiring guards in the hope of protecting themselves from a visit from The Siren. Harry lazily followed along after them, trying to stay out of the way. He peeked in through the doorway unobtrusively, and immediately, his pulse quickened.

Perhaps finding The Siren wouldn't be difficult after all...

--


	9. The Floating Frond

**Chapter 9 - The Floating Frond**

"Is there a problem here?" Beaufield.

Harry ducked back behind the doorway, and unlike the rent-an-aurors, knew just how dangerous of a situation they were all in.

"No," Ulysses answered. "I was just talking with a customer. Could you go back to check on the trip alarms?"

This earned a mental double-take from Harry. One of the guards was mollified by this and began to leave the room, but Belmont's eyes narrowed. "Ma'am, you're past the velvet rope."

"It's okay," Ulysses interjected. "I said she could."

Harry figured out what was going on - and apparently so did Belmont. He unobtrusively moved for his wand, which the female guard parroted a second later.

"Ma'am, if you'll come with me," Belmont said. "I need to ask you a few questions."

"Surely that won't be necessary," the visitor said in amusement.

"Miss," the female guard said, adding her voice. "Please step away from the painting and come with us."

"Wait, wait... I've changed my mind - it's okay," Belmont said to his coworker.

Harry watched as the female guard's eyes widened in alarm. She'd apparently figured out just what was happening, and that she was not only pitted against The Siren, but her boss and two security guards to boot! She managed to block a spell from Ulysses, but Belmont had a well-earned reputation and quickly had her incapacitated and laying unconscious on the marble floor.

"Thank you, my love," the Siren purred, turning once again back to the portrait - which Harry finally saw was the same 'Sunset' picture he first looked at.

"I don't believe that's yours," Harry said, finally stepping into the room.

The Siren turned to face him, a smile immediately lighting her face. "Mister Potter! We meet again!"

The charm came once again, but Harry was mentally ready for it this time around (plus, he didn't have a blasted kids song entrenched firmly into his head.) It was still an extremely potent effect, but this time around it only tempted Harry for a few dangerous seconds.

"Sir," Ulysses began, "This is a private transaction. I'm going to have..."

He got no further. Harry wasn't going to mess around, and immediately began casting spells at the three males. He got a bit lucky and managed to surprise Belmont a bit, taking the most experienced of the three down within a few spells. The other two weren't nearly as proficient, and fortunately, The Siren didn't even bother to cast a spell. Instead, she looked on with enjoyment and almost seemed to be rooting for her adversary to win.

"So," she said, "we're all alone together, once again."

Harry felt her charm redouble on him, but it knocked him mentally off balance for only a few seconds. "Are you going to come peacefully?"

"Oh?" she asked coquettishly. "Are you going to stun a defenseless woman?"

Harry managed to summon a flash of anger, and cast a stunning spell at her. He watched as her eyes widened; she desperately tried to slip off to the side, but the spell hit her flush on the right leg.

She looked back up at him, a fleetingly ugly look on her face. "I'm disappointed in you, Mr. Potter..."

Harry felt the charm affecting his mind begin to slip away as he saw her hand slip into her robes, withdrawing her wand. Instinctively, he took a defensive position and began casting a few "feeler" spells at her - spells that were quick, relatively simple, and weren't intended to win the duel but to help gauge her ability to fight.

Harry was nearly floored by her counterattack. She was shoddy, her technique incredibly rusty, yet she somehow managed to summon some extremely complicated attacks, a few spells of which he'd never even heard of. A few minutes into the fighting, Harry slowly began to get the upper hand - not so much due to raw skill, but experience. The Siren seemed to be a very potent witch, but very inexperienced. She blocked spells she should've simply dodged, her footwork was awkward, and she didn't seem to quite know when the best time to cast a spell was.

Harry pressed his advantage, slowly building up tempo, making her block spell after spell while using the absolute minimum amount of effort to deal with the spells she sent back, until he managed to slip in a small stunning spell between two rather impressive and complicated spells of The Sirens.

With a small whimper, the woman began to collapse on the ground. Harry sighed with relief, until he saw something strange happen to her body. It almost appeared to shrink before vanishing into nothingness. It almost appeared as though it was swallowed up whole by the little palm frond she'd bent and wore around her forehead.

Harry stepped forward cautiously, looking at the small long leaf upon the ground. A nonexistent gust of wind blew through the room, beginning to pull the object aloft.

"Accio," Harry said, pointing his wand at it.

Yet nothing happened.

"Impedimentia."

Still no effect.

Harry cast a few more spells, but each one seemed to simply fizzle away whenever it got close to the frond. He desperately wracked his brain for anything else that might work; meanwhile, the frond floated out through the window.

"Wait," Harry muttered, quickly running outside to find it. When he rounded the door, he saw a little speck high up in the air that quickly gusted out of sight.

Harry cursed, and apparated back to the Ministry.

--


	10. Malfoy Involvement

**Chapter 10 - Malfoy Involvement**

"There's nothing like the smell of quidditch sweat wafting down the corridor."

James turned around to see the slightly smirking face of his most hated arch-enemy. "You know," the Slytherin added, "most players take a shower after practice."

James practically spat his one word reply, "Scorpius."

"You do know what that term is?" Scorpius continued leeringly. "I've heard that some Gryffindors are unclear on the concept of bathing."

James bristled. "I don't need some jumped-up, serpent worshiping daddy's boy to tell me how to shower."

"Good," Scorpius said. "I'll leave you on your way to the baths, then. But before you go, do you know where your brother is?"

"What do you want with my brother?" James asked snidely.

"Now, now, no need to be rude," Scorpius said back haughtily. "I wanted to talk to him about The Siren - he'll at least listen with an open mind and not dismiss my words immediately."

James caught the alluded message - Scorpius told them about this new dark figure well before she was making the news, and James didn't believe it then. This apparently had James stymied, and before he could come up with a new direction to approach from, Scorpius said, "So, do you know where Albus is at?"

James scowled. "I think I know where he's at, but if you think I'm going to leave you alone with him, you're daft. You'd probably curse him or nick his stuff."

Scorpius merely smiled, and gestured for the Gryffindor to lead the way.

Albus was trying to get his Transfiguration homework to make sense. They were supposed to figure out how much stuff weighed when you transformed it into a different substance, and so far, his math said that changing a mouse into solid gold would make it weigh negative 73 pounds. "Ugh," he groused. "I think I'm going to have to pester Rose abo..." He looked up from talking to himself to see the most unlikely pair approaching him.

"Hello, Albus," Scorpius said, taking a seat a few feet away from him. James sat as well, and was visibly trying to put himself a bit between the two of them - something which only seemed to amuse the Slytherin. "I was wondering if we could talk about The Siren?"

"Absolutely," Albus said, not so much because he wanted to talk about it, but because he was tired of homework.

"My father and I," Scorpius started out, "have been following what's been going on pretty well - you father seems to be acquitting himself pretty well, far better than his coworkers."

"Thanks for the approval," James said, shaking his head with a disgusted look.

"However, you probably don't know this, but taking her captive is more difficult than simply disarming her. The ministry doesn't want this to get out, but your father actually managed to stun her."

"What?" Albus said, confused. "Then I don't understand - she should've been caught then!"

"Yes, she should have," Scorpius said, nodding. "But as she fell, her body seemed to just shrink away to nothing - absorbed into a trinket she wears. A leaf of some sort, I believe, which somehow defied any magic your father sent its way."

James snorted. "Even if all of this is true, what good is it telling us?"

"Patience. Now, the ministry seems to think it's on the right track with merely trying to confront her, but unless they have a non-magical way of preventing that leaf from blowing away, running into her and even disarming her isn't going to do a bit of good. My father, however, has figured out a way past it, but it will need your help - both in relaying a message to your father, and spreading a bit of gossip around the school."

"Gossip?" Albus asked. This was an odd request from the Slytherin to say the least.

"Yes," Scorpius continued. "I want you two to start spreading some rumors that my family isn't doing very well financially."

"But, why?"

And to Albus' surprise, James answered. "I get it! You're going to put up something from your estate up for sale."

Scorpius seemed just as astounded. "That's right. Somewhat soon, we're going to announce a private antiquities auction - with some things on the block that would probably make The Siren salivate. Only my father will arrange the location very carefully and enable it to be shut completely off from the rest of the world with a flick of a wand."

James and Albus shot each other looks, not knowing what to say. Both felt the idea was passable, but, well, this was Scorpius. James, in particular, was worried at the fact that Draco Malfoy would, in effect, be shutting their father out from the rest of the world. What did that mean - and what happened if they couldn't get back out?

"So, all we have to do is spread some rumors that you guys aren't doing so well with money?"

"And tell your father to be at Hawthorne Suite north of Buxton three weeks from this Thursday, at 6:00 PM."

--


	11. Contemplating the Hallows

**Chapter 11 - Contemplating the Hallows**

"Ginny, I want to talk to you about something."

Ginny raised an eyebrow and sat down next to her husband on the couch. "Oh?"

"I think it's time to pass it on."

"Pass what on?"

"My Invisibility Cloak."

Ginny laughed. "Do you _really _want to give James another tool to aid in his mischievous deeds?"

"Very true - but that's just it; Since he was born, we just assumed the cloak was going to pass on to him."

"Well, he'd be the one to enjoy it the most."

"Yes, but what about Lily and Albus?"

Ginny sat quietly, thinking about that one. It was a fair question - what were the two younger kids supposed to think when they saw their brother get some legendary artifact straight from childhood storybooks, and they opened up boxes containing broomstick twig clippers?

"It got me wondering," Harry explained. "I had this funny thought that one of my ancestors might have had the same sort of choice - which one of their kids to pass the cloak down to. And then I wondered... maybe Ignotus' parents faced the same problem?"

"What? I don't understand."

"Well, we always assumed that Ignotus made the cloak. What if his parents did and passed it down as a gift? What would they give the other two brothers? Instead of dealing with all the jealousy and hard feelings, wouldn't it be funny if they simply got the other brothers equally impressive gifts?"

Harry's hands moved a bit as his voice grew more animated. "I don't really think Ignotus' parents made the cloak - it's just what got me thinking. Why not simply get Lily and Albus equally impressive gifts?"

"We don't have that kind of money, Harry - we couldn't afford to buy them anything remotely comparable."

"I don't want to buy two gifts - I want to make them."

"_Make them?_"

"Why not? Ignotus did. In fact, take a look at these..."

Ginny stretched out her hands, taking two unusual objects that Harry handed her. They hardly appeared to be anything special. One looked like an ordinary wooden jewelry box, and although it had the appearance of great craftsmanship, it wasn't even polished or painted. The other appeared to be scraps of greenish leather looped around each other in a hodge-podge way, forming something reasonably close to a bag. She examined them closely, smiling as she began to understand a little bit about what her husband was trying to do.

"I take it you want me to hand the box off to Hermione for a week or two." she said, not really asking. "But... the bag?"

"Just a trial-run," Harry assured her. "I was just seeing how well the Mokeskin and Dragon's Blood worked together. I'm still shaving off one long filament of the mokeskin. After Hermione puts an Undetectable Extension Charm on it, I'm going to let it soak in Dragon's Blood, then hopefully use goblin weave to make a bag out of it."

This was something that, up until a few years ago, would've been impossible. Three years ago, Arthur Weasley and Lighak Coldthresh had been given authority from the Ministry of Magic and the Goblin Matriarchy to possibly expand Wizard-Goblin cooperation. Tensions were pretty tight, and most people half-expected it to end in a bloody war, but some good was already emerging from it. The Goblins were being introduced to Runic magic - the wizard's precursor to the wand - while Goblins trained a few wizards on the lesser elements of goblin magic forging. It was a long ways off between sharing Wand Lore and making the Sword of Gryffindor, but progress had to start somewhere. And Goblin Weave was certainly nothing to laugh it - it was a method of interlacing that was not only much sturdier than ordinary knitting, but actually regenerated itself.

"Sounds like a lot of work," Ginny said, impressed.

"For both of us," Harry said sheepishly. "I don't know if I can get the bag done before Christmas, and I was wondering if you'd mind helping?"

"Of course. But you better get going - Malfoy's expecting you at the Hawthorne Suite."

Harry sighed, but got up from the couch. "Hawthorn Suite, Buxton Outskirts" he said, throwing floo powder into the fireplace.

The change was dramatic. Instead of the cozy and weathered look of the Potter residence, Harry found himself in a pristine and antiseptic sort of room. White marble floors led along the expansive and spacious room, lined with double-story windows. It looked like the entryway of some elaborate manor, and finishing the picture was Draco Malfoy with an impeccably classy set of robes.

"Mr. Potter," Draco said, not able to keep the slightest hint of sneer from his voice.

"Mr. Malfoy," Harry greeted back.

"Bidders will be arriving within the hour, so we shant dawdle. I've been able to isolate this room, the auction room, and the stores room behind the auction room. Watch... Indemnus."

The change was extremely subtle, and if Harry hadn't known what to look for, he wouldn't wondered what Draco had even accomplished. But the slightest of breezes through the hall had stopped; the air ducts had seemingly melted flat; the doors now stretched fully to floor and frame, eliminating a crack around the edges.

"What about the windows?" Harry asked. The room being air-tight was all well and good, but it was hard to imagine a spell that couldn't shatter glass.

"Specially hardened. Diffindo!"

Harry watched as the charm hit the glass and while a sound of glass cracking reverberated from the room, the window seemed just fine.

"Imperil," Draco added. The room shifted back to normal, and even knowing what to look for, Harry couldn't spot any difference between the room now and when he first came in. "Now," Draco said, "The only catch is, I was only able to do this for this room, the auction room itself, and the store room behind the auction area. Whatever you do, you have to confront her in one of those three rooms."

----


	12. A Strange Age Line

**Chapter 12 - A Strange Age Line**

Harry was growing bored from the waiting, and the jitters of anxiety about the upcoming confrontation didn't help. He had ducked out of sight as everyone had trickled in before the auction, and was now passing the time until The Siren made her grab for whatever Malfoy artifact tripped her fancy.

However, he started to foster some doubts as the minutes ticked by, and by the sound of it, the auction was going full swing. Draco came out the door from the main auction room, and Harry walked up to him, his face a question.

"Well, what's going on?"

"She just arrived," Draco said, his face betraying a bit of worry.

Harry chanced a peek inside, and it didn't take long to spot the woman; half the guys in the place seemed to be gazing at her instead of the auction block. Harry softly cursed, realizing that they'd forgotten something. After what happened at Ulysses, how could he forget that nearby men were quite likely additional threats to deal with?

"Yeah, my thoughts, too," Draco added. "We're slightly outnumbered."

"Slightly," Harry echoed back, a grim humor in his voice. "Well, change of plans. You're going to rob yourself."

"Pardon me?"

"Last lot, in the middle of bidding, you run in and go up on the block. Take the item, declare the auction closed, and walk back out to this room."

Draco nodded, understanding. They didn't say anything more, standing unobtrusively as they waited. Finally, without a word, Draco strode into the Auction Hall. Harry couldn't hear the Slytherin, but the message was clear from the outraged voices that bubbled up after he was done talking. He waited hopefully - everything would be lost if Draco was stopped by The Siren before he could leave the hall.

Fortunately, a few seconds later, two figures walked into the room: Draco and his quarry.

"Quite an uproar," purred the woman's voice. "However, I came for the item you're holding, and I don't intend to leave without it." While her tone was soft, the danger was clearly present beneath the surface. So much so that Draco, obviously not wanting to risk his neck any further on this venture, quietly put the item on the floor and stepped away.

The Siren immediately stiffened from this unusual behavior - clearly she expected Draco to put up some sort of argument or protest - and Harry saw that the game was up. "_Stupefy!_" he cast.

He almost managed to catch her with it, but she managed to deflect the spell at the last minute. Harry quickly sent a barrage of spells her way, not wanting to let her orient herself, cast anything nasty his way, or even use her charms. In his peripheral vision, he saw his accomplice magically bar the doors (so attendees wouldn't be able to interfere) and sneak off to safer ground. Things quickly grew out of hand, the woman's anger peaking, but Harry managed to keep her on the back foot until he was closing in on sneaking a spell through her guard...

"_Stupefy._"

Harry's eyes narrowed, half-glaring at Draco. The Slytherin had ducked safely out of the way through the whole dual, until he snuck in the one potshot when she had zero chance of stopping it. He supposed he should be grateful for the help, but at that point, he was going to win within a handful of seconds anyway.

"Haven't you learned yet not to hex people in the back?"

"Is there a better place to hex them?" Draco asked. "_Indemnus._"

Harry watched as the palm frond slowly tried to carry itself on a non-existent wind out of the room, but to no avail. There were no gaps to leave through, leaving the leaf to pitifully probe the room, tapping experimentally against the various nooks and crannies in a vain attempt to find an exit.

Curious, Harry walked over to it, examining the frond as it moved. He tried a few spells, but he could actually see them shimmer away a few inches from the frond. He held out his hand as if to grab the leaf, but found that his hand could come no closer than the spells. He cast a few charms - not on the frond, but on himself, altering his perception - and nearly laughed.

"What is it?" Draco asked.

"You're not going to believe this, but there's an age line encompassing this thing."

"What? That doesn't make any sense. She's younger than you, especially as she was vanishing."

"Okay, _reverse _age line, then. Wait, what do you mean, as she was vanishing?"

"I could be mistaken, but as she was shrinking into that thing, she seemed to grow younger. Not like she was de-aging; more like she was reverting back to her real self. I don't think the form she has as "The Siren" is her real one. She looks 28, 29 ordinarily - but she didn't even look 20 as she vanished."

"Great. _Imperil._"

Draco didn't say anything, but was obviously curious as to why Harry had just opened the room back up. The frond, which was bumping up against the wall across the room, suddenly found a gap in a re-opened air duct to take advantage of. Once the artifact was gone, Harry said, "The longer we kept her, the more likely it is she figures out how much we know - and makes it that much more difficult to catch her in a place we can close off."

Draco shrugged and undid the binding on the doors, letting everyone leave - and most of them looked quite angry about the ordeal. "Thank you, by the way," Harry said, "for putting some of your estate up for auction to help out."

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll get them back."

Harry did a double-take, idly wondering just how Draco intended to reacquire them...

----


	13. So It Begins

**Chapter 13 - So It Begins**

"This is the year!"

"You say that every year."

"I'm telling you, I just have... I have this _feeling."_

"You say _that _every year, too."

Rose rolled her eyes, wondering what on earth her two best friends were arguing about. "Care to explain?" she asked, a bit shortly.

James grinned. "The invisibility cloak of my dad's."

"And you think he's going to give it to _you?_" Rose asked incredulously.

"Of course," James replied. "I read up about it. It's passed down, father to son - so it's only a matter of time before they give it to me."

"What makes you think he won't give it to Albus?" Rose shot back.

"Give it to _Albus?_" James asked in a shocked voice. It was pretty clear that he had never even thought about that. He visibly shook off the question. "I'm telling you, I've got a good feeling..."

Rose rolled her eyes. "When are you two coming over to Uncle George's?"

"Within a few hours," Albus answered. "Our dad said that they needed to get a few last things done before heading over. So we're going back home for a bit before we all use the floo."

"Well, hope you're not _too_ late," Rose answered. "You know how the younger kids, and the older kids that _act_ like younger kids..." she shot a look over at James, "... want to open their presents as soon as possible."

James and Albus said their goodbyes before snatching Lily away from talking with Hugo. A quick floo later, and they saw both their parents looking down at them with smiles on their faces.

"We have some presents," Ginny said slowly, "That we want you to open here before we head over to your Uncle George's house. You can bring them with you, but you can't use them until _After_ everyone else has opened their presents. Understand?"

Lily could see her older brothers nodding, but he privately doubted that James registered anything from the last half of what she said.

"Okay, you can open them up. They're under the tree."

Lily held back a bit, watching James and Albus, her mouth falling a bit. Both of their gifts didn't seem very special, at least at first. James' appeared to be a weird looking robe, but she knew it was something amazing simply by the look of utter glee on the boy's face. Sure enough, when James put it on, his entire body suddenly vanished as the fabric wrapped around him.

"... _so it begins_," she heard her father softly mutter.

Albus' gift didn't look like anything in particular - just a mysterious black box a bit smaller than her head, with a few symbols etched in ghostly silver along the outside. But, once again, she was amazed when she saw her brother open it up. As the lid slowly opened, greenish words seemed to lazily flow out.

"What is it?" Albus asked, in a voice filled with awe.

"It's a rare gift called an Ankh's Spellbox," Harry answered. "It's like a spellbook, except you can put as many spells in it as you want. Watch..." Harry pulled out his wand and scribbled in the air, creating a bit of purplish floating text.

"Homenum Revelio - a charm to detect invisible people," Albus said, reading the text.

"Hey!" James muttered. "No fair!"

Harry grinned. "Put it in the box - use your wand." It took a bit, but Albus eventually got the hang of using his wand to corral the floating bits of text back into the box. As the words Harry wrote started to fall into the black cube, they turned from purple to green, the handwriting matching all the rest of the spells.

"Lily," Ginny said gently, "You still haven't opened your present."

Lily turned back to her unopened package, and carefully tore it open. She didn't know what to expect, but if she had, she certainly wouldn't have pictured this.

It looked like a bag, slightly smaller than a muggle purse. But the fabric it was made out of seemed to sheen, alternating between silvery green and goldish red, depending on how the light caught it. When she looked closer, she could see that it was somehow woven with the finest and tiniest of threads.

"It's... uh..." Harry stammered. "Well, it doesn't really have a name yet, so I suppose you get the honor of calling it whatever you'd like."

Ginny filled in. "It's a very special bag. You'll be able to put as many things in it as you want, and it will still feel as light as it is right now. And you'll be the only one able to open it - it's made partly out of Mokeskin."

"It's also very hard to damage," Harry joined in. "Most magic spells will brush right off. And if it ever gets cut or shredded..." He took out a small knife and cut a large gash in the bag. Within seconds, the fibers began to reform, looking as if the bag was reknitting itself anew. By the time her dad was handing it back to her, Lily couldn't even see a scratch or scar marring the surface.

Lily grinned, thinking of how much easier it would be to navigate around Hogwarts. She could just pack all her books and supplies in this bag and tote it around - plus, nobody besides her could get into it! She looked over at Albus, who had the box open and was poking around with the words, and James... well, she couldn't see him at the moment, but she suspected he'd never been happier.

"Okay, pack them away," Harry said. "You'll have to wait until after supper to use them again."

----


	14. It's In The Bag

**Chapter 14 - It's In The Bag**

**-----**

"So, you didn't want to play hide and go seek, either?"

Lily looked up from her bag to see her best friend and cousin walking up to her. "No," she replied back, "especially not with the gift James got for Christmas. He got an invisibility cloak."

"Whoa," Hugo replied, impressed. "And I thought it was cool that I got a Galeforce UB broom. What's _that_?"

"My present," Lily said, holding it up. "My parents gave it to me, it's actually pretty amazing. Watch this." She walked over to the rock garden and picked up a few handfuls, depositing them in the bag. When she was done, she tossed it over to Hugo. Her cousin panicked a bit, expecting a few dozen pounds of weight - and was quite a bit surprised when it felt no heavier than a tshirt.

"Whoa!" Hugo tried to open it, but found that the string wouldn't draw open for him.

"Whoops, forgot about that," Lily said, taking the bag back. "Mum told me that I'd be the only one that could open it." She pulled the drawstring, dumping out quite a bit more rock than a bag that size should be able to hold.

"It's not fair, though," Lily said thoughtfully. "I _know _that the grownups are talking about The Siren, but James is the one that gets a gift that will let him spy on them. I want to know what they're saying!"

Hugo looked back and forth between his cousin and her bag. "How far does it open?"

"Hm?"

"The bag. How wide will it open?"

"I don't know," Lily replied, and experimentally worked with the drawstring, managing to get the gap about half-again larger than a quaffle. "This big, I guess."

"I could do it."

"Do what?"

"I could fit through there."

Lily laughed. "Hugo, why would you _want _to fit in the bag?"

Hugo smiled. "Don't you see? I could get in there, and you could put your bag down by the grownups."

Lily smiled brightly. "Well, go on! Before we miss anything good!"

Meanwhile, the adults sat around the fireplace sippping hot cocoa mixed with a bit of firewhiskey, enjoying the holiday spirit. It didn't take too long, though, for the conversation to turn to The Siren, much to Ron's amusement.

"Come on, Harry - everyone's itching to know about her. Well, _maybe _not your _wife_..."

"Yeah, Harry," Bill added. "We've been looking through the Auror Beat Report, but they're not putting much detail in there about her."

Harry shook his head and saw Ron grinning. Over the last few weeks, the two of them had become somewhat of celebrities. Everyone was clamoring to know what was going on with The Siren, and everyone knew that the two of them were leads investigating her. Between curious citizens, worried shopkeeps, and... well, guys with hopelessly little sense and way too much senseless hope, there seemed to be no end to the requests for tidbits of information.

"Just a second," Harry said, holding up a hand. "_Homenum Revelio_."

Satisfied, Harry detected his oldest son quite a distance away, in the middle of nowhere. He was a bit confused at first until he saw that they were all playing hide-and-go-seek, and James was taking a little bit of an advantage with his new gift. Satisfied that his son was not around to spy on their conversation, he turned back around.

"First off, keep this to yourselves. The ministry is already having enough problems with the rumor mill, and I really don't want to add to the fire. Anyway, it turns out the palm frond The Siren wears around her forehead isn't just for decoration. Whenever she gets hurt or disarmed, she vanishes inside of it. It's also protected from all the magic I shot at it."

He leaned in closer for effect. "But here's the thing... it's got a reverse age line around it."

"What?!"

Harry nodded. "That's right. Even more troubling, I don't think The Siren isn't as old as she looks. She's probably around 20, which means that nobody in the auror department can even lay their hands on this thing - we're all too old."

The room descended into thoughtful silence. George was the one that finally broke it by saying, "Surprised you haven't sent James and Albus in to poke around."

Harry's mouth fell, and Ginny angrily said, "How dare you! We'd never put our kids in that kind of danger!"

"Oh, come on," George said, grinning. "After all the shenanigans Harry got in? Heck, Ron, Hermione, would you like to chip in about your Hogwarts exploits?"

Ron flushed, and Hermione simply said, "We're not sending in Rose, if that's what you're asking."

"Half kidding," George said, shrugging. "Only half, though."

"It does sound a bit hypocritical," Percy added. "All four of you ran off into way too much danger when you were their age."

"Ha!" Ron said. "Percy agrees with you, George!"

George rolled his eyes while Percy puffed himself up indignantly.

"Doesn't really matter," Harry said, defusing things a bit. "The ministry is thinking it all over. They're going to figure out what to do."

-----


	15. Hogwarts Triumvirate

**Chapter 15 - Hogwarts Triumvirate**

**-----------------**

"What?! Why didn't you tell us this earlier!"

James couldn't believe what he was hearing. Lily had somehow overheard the adults talking about The Siren, picked up on the fact that a reverse age-line was put up around her little artifact, and that someone younger than 20 would be needed to help out - and didn't tell them immediately, waiting until after the break entirely? Considering he was younger than 20, was one of the best duellers in the school, and now had an immensely useful invisibility cloak - he was the perfect person to go investigate this "Siren"! Heck, if he'd found out before he'd gotten back to Hogwarts, he would have gone already to find her!

Of course, this is _why _Hugo and Lily had decided not to tell everyone.

"Can you believe this?" he asked, shaking his head.

Albus and Rose both didn't answer him, but before he could prod them about the issue, the headmistress' voice carried over the hall.

"Welcome back for the spring term. I'm pleased to announce that we will be hosting a bit of a contest. I'd like to introduce Mister Halal and Miss Tercaisse, who work for the Department of Mysteries."

This got the hall buzzing with talk. A new school challenge was buzzworthy by itself; Hogwarts having something to do with "The Unspeakables" was alone enough to get people exited. But both combined?

"Silence." Though he said but one word, Mister Halal's deep and deadly serious voice immediately muted the hall. The man was unmistakably imposing - almost unnaturally tall, wearing imposing dark robes, and a stone-set grim expression on his face.

"We've got some good news to share!" Miss Tercaisse, on the other hand, looked like the exact antithesis. Her robes had bright orange trim, she had a youthful smile to her face, and her body seemed to burst with excitement. "The school will be hosting a tournament, which we will name the Hogwarts Triumvirate - the three best the school has to offer!"

"The challenges will be grave," Halal continued, slightly damping the atmosphere. "Anyone can enter, but I'd suggest you contemplate hard about whether you have the spirit in you to succeed."

"And, of course," Tercaisse said in a chipper voice, "there's a 500 Galleon prize for each of the Triumvirate. Signups will start in a few minutes, and will go until noon tomorrow."

"To sign up," Halal solemnly added, "Merely write your name on a slip of paper and slip it into this ten gallon hat."

It wasn't quite like anything James had seen. It certainly looked like the shape of an old proper muggle hat, but the fabric was all wrong. It seemed to be made with a fabric darker than black, as though it absorbed the light around it. And whenever he looked at it for more than a few seconds, he felt a huge instinct to shiver. He watched as Halal set the hat down upon a stool, whisper something to Tercaisse, and almost smile - something that looked horribly foreign on his previously graven face.

"I'm signing up," James said immediately, turning back to his two best friends. "What's wrong, Albus?"

His brother looked like he'd thought of something and was sitting with his mouth slightly agape. "It's just," Albus said hesitantly, "Don't you think it's a bit weird that the ministry finds out about something that they'd need young people to help with, and then shortly after, Hogwarts starts hosting a competition? Seems a bit fishy."

"Of course!" Rose exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of it!" James had no clue of what they were talking about, and motioned for his cousin to explain. "Don't you see?" Rose asked. "This contest, finding the Triumvirate, isn't about the 500 Galleon Prize. Maybe they're going to ask the winners to help them with The Siren!"

They thought about this for a few seconds before James said, "Well, then, all three of us simply have to win it then. We'll be the Triumvirate, so we can go investigate this Siren."

Rose immediately nodded, and Albus joined hesitantly a few seconds later. "I want to get settled in, first; I'll come back later when the hall isn't so full."

"Same here," Rose chimed in.

"All right. I'm going to go sign up now - I'll meet back up with you two in the Commons."

James scribbled his name on a sheet of paper and headed up to the front of the hall where a few students were already congregating to put their name in. But the most curious thing was happening - as students went up to the hat, over three quarters of them were chickening out. They'd get close to the hat, begin to have a look of utter fright, and back away quickly. Within a minute or two, this seemed to be scaring people as much as the hat - especially when a few of the students everyone thought were "brave" couldn't quite summon the courage to get their name in - and a circle began to form up of students holding a slip of parchment. People were egging others on, as if the hat were some sort of monster to try to slay.

"Out of my way," came a voice with amused disdain. James saw Louis casually brushing through the ring of students, striding up to the hat. He only seemed to have a half-second's hesitation before throwing his scrap of paper into the brim. He walked back with a slight swagger, obviously enjoying the impressed looks he was getting from the rest of the students. "Piece of cake," he said.

'Well, _that _settles it,' James thought, impressed by his older cousin's bravery, but absolutely refusing to be out-done. He strode up to the hat, mentally girding himself. A nameless terror streaked through his body, promising a thousand different sufferings with a thousand different deaths. His breath left his mouth, leaving him feeling empty, but he stubbornly took the last step towards the hat. The fabric seemed to glimmer with perverse joy, but James refused to give in, managing to toss his name in after his cousin's.


End file.
